Park Forest Mayor Joe Woods insists the only reason he is taking the village to court is to force the community’s insurance company to pay his legal expenses in a trial next year.
“I don’t want a penny from my community. I do not punch a time clock. I am the mayor of Park Forest 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the insurers are obligated to pay my legal bills in an upcoming trial.
“My lawsuit is not an attack on the village, but rather an attempt to hold a vendor accountable for what already has been paid to it for its contractual services.”
Woods complained that while so much is being accomplished in the village, such as new housing, major repairs to infrastructure and success in attacking property tax issues, the public is being fed through social media stories that undermine those successes.
Woods said he felt compelled to set the record straight and needs to “clear the air” about a trial in which he is accused of injuring a local businessman in a post-midnight brawl in 2024, in which Antiwone Hardy, the owner of the All-Out Smoke Pit, claims to have suffered injuries to his back and the loss of teeth at the hands of Woods.
A report filed by the Cook County sheriff’s office used statements by both Hardy and his wife, Shalonda, and nearby camera footage in their investigation.
When Woods was sued by Hardy, the village’s legal firm agreed to represent him, despite the denial of coverage by Park Forest’s insurance company who determined Woods was acting as an individual, and not as the mayor. The Village Board went one step further by turning to another legal firm to represent the community.
Woods said his greatest concern is that the misrepresentation of the truth behind his lawsuit is causing citizens to lose faith in the village and its leadership.
Bloom High School
Bruce Meyer, who bleeds Bloom High School blue, notes with obvious pride that ground was broken last week for a state-of-the-art indoor track facility at the Chicago Heights school.
It is, he notes, the school’s first new construction project in more than 60 years and will be funded by $40 million in grants. The facility, he writes, “will be one of the premier high school facilities in the United States.”
That post alone brought back memories for my more than two-decade stint as high school sports editor for the baiduhai, and of the numerous times I watched Meyer’s beloved Trojans sweep to victory.
To me, track and field was always the easiest sport to cover. There always seemed to be a good story waiting to be told and coaches willing to help tell that story.
One of the best was the late Steve Miller, the longtime track coach at Bloom, who seemed to enrich everything he did and almost every person he touched.
In both 1972 and 1976, Miller’s teams at Bloom were runners-up for the state track title, but after a decade at the school, and with a master’s degree from Governors State University, he was moved to California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. There his teams won three “small school” national titles in track and two in cross-country.
He then began a 9-year stay at Kansas State, rising from track coach to athletic director. Nike sportwear was his next stop, rising to director of global sports marketing before leaving in moves to help revitalize the Professional Bowlers Association to the CEO of Agassi Graf Holding and later to a faculty member at the University of Oregon.
Once, while at Cal Poly, and as reported by this paper, he was quoted as saying “Bottom line … Bloom High School was the best 10 years of my life.”
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I wrote most of these words about Miller after his death last year. But now I add that although Meyer says the new track will not be dedicated to anyone, if there is ever a chance to give the track a name, I would put Steve Miller atop the list.
Jerry Shnay is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.